In Defense of Politics

Paper $27.50ISBN: 9780226120676
Published
October 1993
Not for sale in the British Commonwealth

In this illuminating celebration of the political world, Bernard Crick asserts that politics, with its compromises and power struggles, remains the only tested alternative to government by coercion, making both freedom and order possible in heterogeneous societies. For Crick, politics is messy and complex, and his book defends it against those who would identify it with (and reduce it to) ideology, democracy, nationalism, or technology.

This Fourth edition has been updated to include an assessment of the revolutions in 1989 in Eastern Europe. It also examines current situations in Northern Ireland, Israel and Palestine, and South Africa.

“A short book written with verve and brilliance. . . . He has written an exceedingly clever and disturbing book on important issues, all that he writes is alive and much of what he says, even when it seems perversely provocative, turns out to be penetrating and serious.” —Isaiah Berlin, 20th Century

“One of the most thoughtful products of the political dialogues of the London School of Economics since the great days of Tawney, Dalton, Wallas and Hobhouse. Its sobriety, liberal spirit and toughness of mind are rare qualities in any political work.” —Edward Shils, Guardian

Preface to the Fourth American Edition Acknowledgments 1. The Nature of Political Rule 2. A Defence of Politics Against Ideology 3. A Defence of Politics Against Democracy 4. A Defence of Politics Against Nationalism 5. A Defence of Politics Against Technology 6. A Defence of Politics Against False Friends The non-political conservative The a-political liberal The anti-political socialist 7. In Praise of Politics Three Footnotes: A Footnote to Rally the Academic Professors of Politics A Footnote to Rally Fellow Socialists A Final Footnote to Rally Those Who Grudge the Price

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu